(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-20 17:49

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The Industrial Bank reported its 2007 net profit up 126 percent over a year earlier driven by its surge in retail and intermediary business.

Net income reached 8.6 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), or 1.75 yuan per share, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Industrial Bank, headquartered in Fuzhou, the capital city of East China's Fujian province, is a joint venture controlled by the Fujian provincial government and the Hang Seng Bank. By the end of 2007 the bank's total assets exceeded 851 billion yuan.

The Bank, formerly called the Fujian Industrial Bank, said its business income climbed to 22 billion yuan, up 61 percent from 2006.

"Business structure and income mix were further improved," said the statement. Outstanding retail loans, which accounts for a third of its total outstanding loans, more than doubled to 132 billion yuan. Intermediary business also surged 176 percent to one billion yuan.

Last month, the bank agreed to extend 1.5 billion yuan in loans to small and medium-sized businesses for energy efficiency projects, under a risk-sharing agreement with the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank Group.

The bank listed on Shanghai stock market in February last year. Its shares rose 6.24 percent to 34.92 yuan on Wednesday.